'You only get one life and you only get one body'

Kelly dominating at the 2012 London Paralympics. Image: GettySource:BodyAndSoul

As a 15-year-old girl Kelly Cartwright would always wear long pants to school. It could be 18 degrees. It could be 40 degrees. No matter what the weather, Kelly would be in her polyester trousers, scratching on her like a reminder of what she was missing.

“Now I wish I didn’t,” she tells whimn.com.au as part of the Power Women profile series, adding, “You get one life, and you get one body.”

Kely was only 15 when cancer took her leg. Image: Instagram @kellycartwrightSource:Whimn

You see, Kelly isn’t one in a million. She’s actually one in 2.5 million. At age 15, the now 29-year-old Paralympic champion was diagnosed with a type of cancer so rare, she’s only met one other person with it, and it cruelly took her right leg.

For two years, the teenager who dreamt of playing netball for Australia, was told that constant ache in her knee was growing pains. After a surgery to remove what they thought was a cyst, turned out to be synovial sarcoma, Kelly had to make the choice to amputate her leg, as chemo wasn’t an option.

It’s a lot for anyone to take on, let alone a teenage girl hearing the ‘c’ word.

“The first thing that came through my head was ‘am I going to die?’,” she explains of that chilling moment in the doctor’s surgery, adding that her parents’ distress “frightened me even more.”

Kelly had three agonising days to make the choice she did, and understandably it was both mind-bending and life-altering. A tsunami of emotions washed over her in those 72 hours.

The epitome of strenght and determination. Image: GettySource:Whimn

“I was angry. I kept asking, ‘why me?’. I was scared of what people might think of me, scared of the unknown, scared of not being accepted, of not walking or running again,” the now motivational speaker says, ahead of her appearance at the sold out whimn.com.auPower Women event, held at L'Aqua in Sydney.

Power Through Moving Past Fear

Kelly made the choice to amputate, and while those pit-of-the-stomach fears lasted 30 long days, out of the despair, came acceptance.

“There came a point where I knew my leg wasn’t growing back. I was going home, so I had to take life with both hands and move forward,” says Kelly.

That’s when she rediscovered the healing power of sport, after a teacher at school suggested she go to a regional talent search day for the Paralympics. Speaking with Paralympians changed the way Kelly saw herself, “I realised I could do certain things. I wasn’t limited.”

Since then, Kelly’s proven herself limitless. She’s climbed Kilimanjaro on one leg, “something I never thought I’d be able to do,” becoming the first above-knee amputee woman to do so in 2009. She’s represented Australia at the 2012 London Paralympic Games where she claimed the gold medal and set a world record, and ran a PB in the 100m to claim silver. And she’s become a mum, to three-year-old Max. Her second child with partner Ryan is due end of July, recognising motherhood is a big transition from the “selfish” life of an athlete.

“It’s the hardest thing mentally and physically. It was hard at the start to adjust. I went from being a selfish athlete, to my needs not being number one,” she reveals, adding, “Motherhood has taught me patience above anything else.”

Her son Max is old enough now to notice Kelly’s difference. .

“He tries to bring me my leg in the morning now and always tries to press all the buttons. I might be a bit different at school pick-up and drop-off, but that’s something he’ll live with. I’m proud and I think he thinks it’s pretty cool,” the gold medallist says.

Power Through Self-Acceptance

In our 45 minute phone chat, I quickly get the sense this isn’t a case of professional athlete, amateur human. If sunshine had a voice, it would sound like Kelly’s and she’s here to spread the word on self-acceptance.

“Eventually, I didn’t want to hide anymore,” she says, of her path from covering up her leg even on a 40 degree day, to appearing in shorts in the window of every Cotton On store in the country.

That was five years ago, and Kelly’s first foray into modelling. Since then, she’s worked with Australian and global brands including Reebok, Tradie, Qantas, Kmart, L’Oreal, and International Sports Agency in Paris, to name a few.

“I love showing diversity,” she says of the opportunity to be the change she wants to see. “When I first started, I had never really seen that before. Now, I feel like diversity is being showcased everywhere, and not just disability, but colour or size. We still have a long way to go yet, it should be the norm,” she says.

It’s not just equal representation the Order Of Australia medallist wants, but equal opportunities. Kelly is passionate about those living with a disability having the same life as the able bodied, using the awkwardness of shoe shopping as an example of how difficult it can be for her.

“Life needs to be more accessible. Whether it’s in the workforce, shopping centre, or the everyday. I’ve felt out of place a lot in certain places. We all deserve the same lives, able bodied or not,” Kelly says.